The Mindful Journey

  There are times in our lives when we find ourselves completely lost in the labyrinth of life. It can be hard if you don’t have people with whom you can find solace. We all have to go through tough times in life. It’s a constant battle with yourself, and you have to overcome it. Time won’t heal you; you have to heal yourself . All the bad things that happened—the hurt caused by people or circumstances that made you feel worthless—remember, you are not the bad things that happened to you. Life may have been unfair, but that doesn’t define who you are. The past doesn’t define who you are right now or who you are becoming. Do not feel guilty for existing in this world. You didn’t come here because of others, and they don’t belong to your journey. As the poet Rumi said: “Hardship may dishearten at first, but every hardship passes away. All despair is followed by hope; all darkness is followed by sunshine.” When you are lost in life, you need to search for your own way out. Don’t avoi...

  Life around us can sometimes feel discomfort, especially in this generation where almost everyone is more anxious than ever before. Nobody can fully give us the comfort we need; that is our inside job to make ourselves comfortable within the midst of chaos. Reading has always helped me escape from reality and visit a different world for a while. Everyone has a different method to help themselves find comfort. If something gets difficult in our journey, remember avoiding it won’t help you escape. It’s better to fight that challenge. There are things we can do when things get hard. We can do different things to get away from the problem for a while and then revisit it — maybe this time we can look at it from a different perspective. We are all worthy of love, no matter what your situation is. Being young or old won’t change the fact. There will be some people in your life who won’t make you feel worthy of love or anything, who will make you miserable. But remember, your worth is yo...

  T here are times in your life when you can’t see a way out of difficult times. You feel hopeless, giving up on yourself, feeling stuck in the same place always. You don’t see any future. In those gloomy days, you need to have patience. Perseverance is important in life. The life we are living — if we don’t like it — we can always change it. Hope is a beautiful thing; it keeps us going forward even when we are in the worst moments of life.                                                    Photo by Mor Shani on Unsplash Hope brings you lots of beautiful thoughts about life — the things that you will have, the people that you will meet, the foods that you will eat. Looking back at the past, you will be thankful that your past self didn’t give up. After going through a lot of pain in life, yet you didn’t stop hoping for a beautiful future. Things may see...

  Dear Self, You survived! But you weren’t going to, were you? Life was hard. You wanted a home so badly — look! You are living in your own home now. Things were tough, but despite all the suffering, pain, and trauma, you lived. You wanted to have only good people around you. You’ll have some, though not everyone will be there for you. But you always wanted cats, didn’t you? Yes, you have cats now, and they will light up your mood when you feel sad. I know home was something you deeply craved. You weren’t happy back then; you were always sad, anxious, and worrying about the future. What will happen to you? You felt invisible, unheard, and unwanted. Let me tell you something: things will change. Just hold on. Believe that things will get better, and guess what? They will — I promise. I know it’s hard to see a future when you’re in your darkest moments, where no light seems to shine and no positive words make sense. You just need to hold on. Survive, because there is light at the end...

  Things that didn’t happen in life, those who left you when you needed them the most — maybe those people and those things you wanted weren’t meant for you. You are on your own. Nobody will take care of you, look after you, or check on you if you are having a bad day, a nervous breakdown, or feeling the worst of life with continuous anxiety. You have to take care of yourself. Being 18 years old, I now realize how fast life moves on, how all those years just pass by in a moment. All the things I promised myself to acquire or learn — I haven’t gotten the chance to explore. Time passing by is a reminder of the precious moments slipping away from life. Stop lamenting over the things you haven’t achieved. You are the future of yourself, filled with immense possibilities. You can be whoever you want to be. You can live anywhere in the world if you wish. You are capable of all this. Life is short yet long enough to fight with yourself. Life is short on Earth; it’s important to choose the...

  Emptiness My soul is tired of everything — to want to be loved, cared for, feel important — none of them I have. Some things cannot be bought. Maybe everything is beautiful in a fairy tale, but this is not some magical imaginary world. This is a harsh world where good things are rare. I don’t know how things work. By luck? Or by chance? I want to go far away from this harsh world. I want to embrace myself with love, go away from people who are not meant for me, who don’t belong to my journey. But there is discomfort when you have been in this suffering for a long time in your life. You kind of start to enjoy your pain. You don’t know how to be normal again. You are scared of getting away from it. You don’t know if you will survive without that pain. It’s a delusional phase of life, but the only way to get out of this misery is to let go, no matter how hard it is. Why are you sad?  I don’t know. Why is everyone running for nothing?  I don’t know. Is life that hard? ...

  Once you start growing up, you realize some people don’t like you anymore as they used to or pretended to. You are no longer their favorite if you don’t fulfill their wishes or listen to what they say. Remember, this is your life journey. Don’t live your life based on other people’s opinions; you need to make choices for yourself. You do not belong to them. Everyone is unique in their own way, and no one is superior to others. There are times when you may feel unworthy, as if nobody values or cares for you. This might be because of your surroundings — they don’t make you feel good about yourself and instead make you feel unimportant. In times like this, you need to gather yourself with love, care, and protection. Do not let people teach you hate. Don’t hang out with such people. When things get difficult, you need to treat yourself with small joys: go to a coffee shop, spend quality time with yourself, or go on a vacation if you can. Surround yourself with nature, and you will fe...